Castara Retreats Apartments - Reader Reports & Opinion
Amazing, Beautiful Accomodation In Paradise!!!
Tim & Lynn Morris from U.K. visited in January 2006 and awarded 
We have just returned from our second stay at Castara Retreats. We thought it was amazing last year – this year was even better!!!
We stayed in Birdsong Lodge this time. Birdsong was in the process of being built in February 2006 when we last visited Castara Retreats, so we were excited to see it finished. It exceeded all our expectations. As with all the apartments/lodges at Castara Retreats, the lodge is beautiful with stunning views. I have now seen all the accommodation at Castara Retreats and have found every property to be finished to the highest standards and immaculately clean and well equipped with everything you could possibly need. Every single property has its individual highlights. All have amazing views over Castara, the beach and the coastline below. The gardens surrounding the properties are beautifully planted and very well maintained.
What makes Castara Retreats so special are the staff. Porridge, who manages the apartments, is always on hand to answer any questions and make sure your stay is perfect. He always has a smile and makes Castara Retreats a very special place to stay. He will call by each day to see if you need any help and advice. Porridge & his wife Jeanell are perfect hosts and can provide a taxi service to anywhere on the island, vehicles to hire on a daily or weekly basis, tours, shopping trips and advice about local activities. If you would like a home cooked meal, Marita, who lives opposite the Retreats, will prepare you delicious local dishes and deliver them to you. Ovita, Hermin & Sherry-Ann come in the service the apartments twice a week, always with a friendly smile and nothing is too much trouble. Doris brings fresh flowers for each accommodation every week & Carrington is around most days, maintaining the gardens and bringing guests fresh bananas & mangos from the garden.
The village of Castara is situated around a beautiful bay with a lovely sandy beach and warm sea, with safe swimming. Fresh fish can be purchased from the local fishermen on a daily basis. The ladies of the village bake bread & cakes in banana leaves in a clay oven on the beach every Thursday & Saturday...delicious!! Freshly baked bread can also be purchased from one of the local stores every afternoon and basic food & vegetables can be bought at the various shops in the village. All the local residents are friendly and always ready to stop for a chat (called liming!!). It was our second visit to Castara and already we have been accepted as a “local” and have made many friends.
We have travelled all over the Island now, as this year was our 3rd visit to Tobago. I have not seen anywhere as perfect as Castara to stay and to be honest, none of the other accommodations I have seen on the Island can touch Castara Retreats for location, excellent accommodation and friendliness. In Castara Retreats, Steve & Sue, who designed and built the beautiful accommodations, have created the perfect oasis for relaxation and an amazing holiday. The properties blend into the hillside and are finished to very highest of standards. The website Steve & Sue have designed is excellent, very comprehensive with easy booking & payment facilities. Requests and emails are always replied to promptly. All in all we would highly recommend Castara Retreats!!
We have been back 2 days and have already booked for next year!!! I can definitely say that Castara Retreats will be our winter holiday destination for many years to come!!
Guest Report - Castara Retreats Apartments
Caroline Wade from U.K. visited in November 2005 and awarded
I have been e-mailed by mytobago to given an opinion on the accommodation that I stayed in when I visited Tobago, even if it was quite a while ago which it was.
We stayed in the Rainforest apartment for one week after staying at Top River Pearl for the first week (which I will review separately). The Rainforest apartment is the biggest of all the apartments, we went about four years ago now. We have really happy memories of staying there and would most definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to see the real Tobago. I have stayed in many hotels and all inclusives in different places in the world but you never really get to see the “real” Mexico for example if you are cosseted away in an all inclusive hotel. With this apartment you can you go down to the local restaurants in the village and have a delicious meal and get to meet all the locals. The apartment itself was breathtaking, beautiful pine floors and well looked after and a really good kitchen. I brought a bird feeder (there was an old one there) and put bread and left overs out for the birds everyday, they were fascinating to watch. We also put banana in the bird feeder at night and watched all the bats flying around within a few feet of us taking the banana from the feeder as well. You can´t do that kind of thing in a hotel!
To wake up every morning to the view was just magical and we will always have fond memories it. The apartment was beautifully done, but the best thing about it was the open veranda to the front and obviously looking out over the beautiful bay. Our advice would be to hire a jeep like we did and explore the island, we had some great fun in ours and went to just about every beach there is in Tobago.
We would love to go back sometime in the future and would give this apartment 10 out of 10, it really does have the Wow factor.
Castara Retreats Is The Perfect Gettaway
Marcus Croskell from U.K. visited in October 2005 and awarded
My partner and I stayed in Castara Retreat's Osprey apartment for two weeks in the middle of October 2005 and loved every minute.
The apartment was quite sufficient for our needs with a modest, but well equipped kitchen and clean facilities. Osprey has a large balcony overlooking the bay which allows you to have a table to eat at one end and then a hammock and chairs to relax in the other. Furthermore, it is the opposite side to the main stairs to the 4 apartments based at Castara Retreats making it much more private. It is also within a few steps of a nice paved patio where one can sun oneself on the sunlounger in the morning whilst devouring your next book.
We loved the great views across Castara every morning come rain or shine. Although we were in the rainy season it usually rained for 10-15mins a day. Swimming in the rain is great fun in the Caribbean and different to freezing in the North Sea or Atlantic!
Castara as a village is very basic. We were supported by Porridge who was always available for advice and Duck with gossip from the village. L & M's beside the co=operative provided some tinned things (a lot of corned beef) but no much else. As long as you stock up on beer and meat when coming to Castara you can get by easily. We bought fresh grapefruits and pineapples daily from the man on the corner near Margurites. He was always ready to help and explain what some of the different vegetables were including how to cook them.
Castara was my favourite place in Tobago and is a great base to explore the rest of the island. It is a short bus ride to Englishman's bay that was the most idyllic beach I have ever visited. You have to buy bus tickets from the local shop. In Castara it is from the shop on the main road beside the fruit/veg seller I mentioned above.
The waterfall is worth a little trip when the sun is hiding one morning and you can go and swim in the local bath that is the plunge pool. Although some are clearly profiting from the new influx of tourists generally in the island, it is still a poor village and as such many houses do not have running water (unlike all tourist apartments) and use the waterfall to wash.
If you like a unique experience, Castara is top on my list of places in the world. Usually there was one other couple on the entire beach whenever we went. People are around but there is plenty of space to lose yourself in your own little world around the island. We would thoroughly recommend Castara Retreats for a comfortable self-catering stay. We only cooked about 4 times in two weeks for dinner so it was not a struggle being self-catering. Just make sure you try buying some fish as you will get a massive tuna or the like of 2 feet long or bigger for £2-3! It is a truly rural and Caribbean experience that is characteristic of the village.
Our First Visit To Castara Retreats, Tobago.....
Vikki Brand from U.K. visited in August 2005 and awarded
We booked our holiday to Castara Retreats in May 2005 and found the MyTobago and Castara Retreats websites to be incredibly helpful and informative, I have never been so prepared (and so ready) for a holiday! After what seemed like an eternity we arrived on the 18th August 2005 for two weeks that I don´t think either of us will forget, a holiday of a lifetime, and one that will be re-visited for many years to come.
Osprey was perfect for us, a comfortable and well-equipped apartment with everything you could need. The gardens were beautiful and attracted an exceptional amount of bird life to the feeders, and the view from our deck was simply inspiring. I miss crawling out of bed to sit on the deck with a view of the village and the bay that literally takes your breath away! It was great to meet the owners Steve and Sue along with their daughter Freya, and thanks to them we enjoyed barbeques on the deck, and a fantastic boat trip to Big Bay. Castara Retreats would however not be complete without Porridge, Jeanelle, Ovita, Carrington and Duck. We would highly recommend a trip with Duck whether on land or sea, and his cooking is exceptional!
As a couple we love to get away from it all and shun the commercial, package type holidays that are so widely available. Tobago was the perfect choice, and the village of Castara was exactly what we were looking for. It was a privilege to live among this close fishing community and to buy fresh produce, meet local characters and eat traditional fare on a daily basis. Watching the fishermen at work pulling in the Seine net was an incredible sight, be sure to get up early! Nights spent at Skipper´s Rum Bar (I forget the proper name! Too much Carib perhaps?) were a wonderful blend of locals and tourists from all over Europe, which made for great conversation and of course dancing.
Thankfully the mosquito and sand-fly bites were few and far between, no more so than on any European holiday we have been on anyway. Although I think we have the mosquito net to thank for that! The occasional rain shower did nothing to dampen our spirits either, as it usually disappeared as fast as it had appeared leaving blue skies and brilliant sunshine. Our only negative experience was one morning on the beach when we watched horrified as young local boys (with small fish tied to wire as bait) tried to hook, and bring down the Magnificent Frigatebirds.
We visited most of the island by jeep (hired from Porridge) and found so many beautiful bays and villages, our favourite disoveries were Jemma's restaurant in Speyside, the craft shop and ice-cream stall at Englishman's Bay, Pirates Bay, Little Tobago and the Argyll Waterfall.
Our next visit will unfortunately have to wait until 2007, and until then we will remember Castara and everyone we met with fond and happy memories.
Vikki & Ewan Brand
A Little Slice Of Paradise...
Sharon Robinson from U.K. visited in June 2005 and awarded
We've just returned home from a two week holiday in Tobago, with one week in Charlottville and one week at Fisherman's Lodge at Castara Retreats. Fisherman's Lodge is one of THE most amazing accommodation places we've ever stayed in and we can't thank Sue & Steve enough! The lodge has got a fabulous feel to it – there are numerous homely touches that make you feel so welcome and the views are amazing. I woke up this morning in my bed in Farnham and wished I could sit up and look out through the mosquito net onto the bay at Castara! The accommodation was also perfect for our son Dylan (17 months) – he loved trotting about playing on the deck and the BBQ area.
Porridge, Duck and Carrington made us feel very welcome – Carrington bought us fresh fruit (mango and banana) every morning and our boat trip with Duck was a great day out. Porridge was also fab – always turning up with a smile on his face and nothing was too much trouble.
We certainly hope to visit Castara Retreats again in the future and have already recommended it to a few friends – we will certainly be talking about it for a long time to come! We also have to thank Steve, Sue & Jean for their quick response to all of our emails and for making it so easy for us to book with them.
All in all we really did have a great time and have lots of lovely memories which are too numerous to list.... :-)
Phil, Sharon & Dylan Robinson
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